Me a sexist groper? Just tell that to my fat-arsed wife who fines me

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Oct 24, 2004 | by CAROLE MALONE

GODFREY Bloom is in trouble again. Four weeks ago it was because the Euro MP announced that "no businessman with a brain would employ a woman of child bearing age".

He then compounded the damage claiming he represented Yorkshire women who all had their husband's dinner on the table when they came home and that more women should follow their example because "they didn't clean behind the fridge enough".

Unsurprisingly, the country's collective sisterhood came down on him like a ton of bricks. There was a national outpouring of venom that hasn't been seen since Frank Skinner proclaimed all women over the age of 30 to be dogs. Glenys Kinnock slated him as a "Neanderthal." And fellow MEPs branded him a "dinosaur".

But far from being repentant the bowler-hatted businessmen says: "I put it that way because I'm very clever. If I hadn't said what I said in the way that I said it no one would be talking about the maternity rights that are costing women jobs. But they are. People said at the time, 'He might be a buffoon in a bowler hat - but by God he's got a point'."

And he may well be right because stringent legislation IS creating covert discrimination - and in some cases putting women out work. It is also, according to his postbag, causing small businesses to think twice about employing women who are likely to get pregnant.

But it was the bombastic way he put his views across that left half of the female population wanting to scratch his eyes out - a situation which intensified last week when the UKIP spokesman was accused of groping a Cambridge student, one of 20 lady rugby players who'd been invited on a two-day trip to Brussels to see the European Parliament.

Bloom denies the charges absolutely. "It's an outrage," he says.

"I am absolutely NOT a groper," he booms from the study of his Yorkshire home which he shares with his wife Katryna and where the walls are plastered with action-packed photographs of the Cambridge Ladies Rugby Team which he sponsors. "I'm just not a wandering hands kind of guy. I've been to 25 dinners with these girls and I think had there been even the merest hint of groping it would have got round by now. These girls have a radar. They can spot a groper a mile off - and believe me, they're not the kind of women to let it happen.

"Yes, I give some of them big bear hugs because I've known them for years. I'm a tactile man. But I'm not a groper. And if I was going to start, believe me I'd have chosen someone better than that 'thing' in the paper..."

The "thing" Godfrey's referring to is politics student Rebecca Bowtell who'd been invited on the trip at the last minute after one of the other girls dropped out.

"She isn't even a member of the team, for God's sake," says Godfrey. "But girls who were there - have signed depositions to say what this girl's saying is utter nonsense. They know me for God's sake. They know I like a drink, and by God so do they - but they know I'd never do anything like this." Bowtell also claims that as well as groping her Bloom was drunk and made a stream of "sexist and misogynistic" remarks. She claims he said one woman was "absolutely thick, but she's got good tits" and of another he'd said "Big tits - very feisty".

So did he say any of those things?

"Very probably," says the man who in the previous breath had described his wife Katryna as being "very feisty with a big arse". He tells me: "Look it was a very convivial evening. There was a lot of drink taken. And I was no more or less convivial than everyone else who was there. But I'm not a bloody monk." I ask the man who once said he'd "fallen out of more taxi cabs drunk than you can shake a stick at" if he'd been drunk the night of the supposed harassment.

"The taxi quote is quite true. But no, I was not drunk that night. I don't remember everything I said and, yes, there might have been a bit of banter, but I'm not going to apologise for that. We're talking about a girls' rugby team here. These women take their game very seriously. They play hard during the game and they play hard after it. In terms of beer they can match me drop for drop and they give as good as they get. Believe me, none of them was offended by anything I said. In fact, I've had letters from all of them saying what a fantastic time they had - including one from this woman Bowtell. This was a private party at the Belga Queen restaurant in Brussels. It wasn't paid for by the European Parliament. It was paid for by me - all pounds 1,600 of it.

"If Rebecca Bowtell had taken me to one side and told me my language was offensive I would have apologised on the spot. I might also privately have thought, 'This is a rugby club dinner - what did you expect?' But she didn't. She made a formal complaint. However she didn't mention this so-called harassment until last Friday- FOUR weeks after the dinner. Now what's that about? I don't pretend to know what's going on here but I know she's very left-wing and I think there is a political agenda." The sexual harassment accusations have hit Bloom hard. He feels they have sullied his memories of Cambridge's Robinson College "Look at these," he says pointing to framed photos of beautiful women in floaty evening dresses and handsome young men in DJ's.